Differentiate Your Professional Service Practice
December 4, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
Photo credit: Wessex Archaeology's photostream (coastal and marine set) on Flickr
I get asked over and over by some people about what kind of coaching and consulting I do. They seem to have a preconceived notion, or perception of it and then attempt to reconcile my explanation to somehow fit their worldview. Sometimes I can’t figure out if they’re curious and trying and wanting to understand, or just not listening.
But now I’m realizing that people are pulled out of their comfort level when they’re in the depths, and the depths is my space.
I work with people at the level of often hidden assumptions, expectations and beliefs. In organizations, its collections of those - the culture. I use metaphysical metaphors to support the change facilitation process. I shouldn’t be surprised that people want to stick their toe in the water many times before they risk getting a touch of the bends.
I’m blogging this because I’m getting a sense that there’s a growing desire, or movement, or response to series of crises, to go deeper: in life, business and self-awareness. I think its a great sign that people and businesses are showing willingness and readiness to move beyond the surface of their experience, and with a leap in faith, take the plunge into what’s deep and unknown…that with which we identify but which contradicts what we want and where we want to go.
I don’t believe that “going deep” is only within the realm of professionals who focus on “people” issues. Accountants, consultants, health professionals, lawyers, technology professionals, etc, can practice recognizing opportunities to serve clients at a deeper level. It starts with allowing more space for conversation and sharing, being present without an agenda, and being willing to think differently about everything we and our clients think we know.
Uncertainty is the new reality for our clients. We can help them make it their pivot point of power from which they can create and direct their change and growth, if we dare to be different.
Business and Social Media: A Non-linear Process
November 16, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Leave a Comment
Social Media:Community Snapshot
Social media will increasingly become more important to businesses that must find new ways to gain influence and increase attention share in peer-to-peer (friends) networks.
However, the strategies being developed to help companies accomplish this are often loosely based on a traditional sales and marketing funnel analogy, identifying community members as:
- visitors
- prospects
- leads
- opportunities
- customers
The funnel goal is to focus efforts on the people who are most likely to be influenced to take action and move them through the funnel.
This is an effective social network model but is based on assumptions that are not applicable for many businesses. The graphic simply illustrates a non-linear social community model as a connected group of people, including a tiny percentage who talk and a very large percentage who listen only, and who all have latent needs. Often, that’s it!
In this model, people (peers) who listen only to other people (peers and brand) may be just as likely to be influenced as the small percentage of people (peers) who talk. And there’s no way of knowing what the brand (people) can do to facilitate that. It requires experiential learning.
Because many communities look and act like this, its critical that business social media strategies differentiate assumptions from myths and not base their quest for quantitative metrics and ROI on those myths. Its harder to do that than it sounds because we individually and collectively (culture) identify with what’s worked in the past. Its what we “know”.
But success could mean testing many assumptions about the 95% of community members who listen only, and learning how to earn their attention and better understand them. Compared to traditional marketing methods, its a less clear, test and learn approach, dependent more on time than money. But that should not mean a casual or haphazard, half-hearted approach to social media.
Regardless of how tentative you feel about it, or how small you start, take it seriously. This is the future, and whatever the size of your business, an important decision you’ll make and change that you’ll lead.
Status Matters To Change Success
April 25, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · 1 Comment
Today I read something that brought up a memory so uncomfortable that I had largely repressed it. I was working as a strategy consultant for a growing company trying to get itself bought. We were a tight-knit group and although the bloom was fading from the dot-com rose, it was a mostly optimistic organization. In an effort to make everything look as professional and capable as possible to investors, there were frequent re-organizations, mostly designed by people who had never previously heard the word.
I was the last one called in to be briefed on the last re-org before the company was sold. The owner who I was meeting with looked pained and was nervously chattering. He started going down the org chart…and down….and down… And there I was, not just at the bottom but barely even connected to anything, like an org chart dangling participle. My response was visceral and I thought at the time, totally out of proportion to the event. I was assured that I was highly valued and respected (and I was well compensated and got good projects). It was just that they “didn’t know where to put me”. And I could see why. I was happy to jump from project, to account, to consulting. I cared little about politics or management and always preferred to do creative work, rather than manage others doing creative work. I was, am and always have been a creative, entrepreneurial generalist.
So why could I not get past it? To everyone’s surprise I left very shortly thereafter although it required relocation for a new position. Although I’ve stayed in touch with many of the people on that dreaded org chart, I never again spoke to, talked about or even looked at the person I met with that day. But I killed the messenger many times in my fantasies while at the same time beating myself up over my big fat jealous childish ego.
So today I read about a new NIMH study of the brain, specifically the medial prefontal cortex (involved in sizing up others), the striatum (the reward center) and the amygdala and posterior cingulate (emotional pain processing). The researchers scanned the brains of participants involved with a game that resulted in reward and loss of both money and status/reputation.
“We found that the brain reacts very strongly to the other players and specifically the status of the other players,” Zink says. “We weren’t expecting that profound a response,” she adds, noting that the subjects seemed to be concerned with the hierarchy within the game even when it was of no consequence to how much money they could make.
So now I understand; mine was a normal brain reaction to a perceived loss of status even though I was never a person who cared about titles or climbing the corporate ladder. But this new knowledge is even more important to me as a change facilitator and executive coach because either real or perceived loss of status is a major factor that should be considered and communicated when leading large organizational or small business change. Leaders who can increase their own awareness and emotional IQ about the impact of status change on their people and culture, will more effectively help others through, and consequently increase the success likelihood of, their change programs.
Technorati Tags:
leadership, organizational culture, self-awareness
RedShift eBook - The Seven Virtues of Change Leadership
January 2, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter · Comments Off
How Executives Will Fill the Leadership Chasm and Transform Their Organizations
This is my first eBook and a labor of love created during the dead of winter 2008. My goal is simply to create a spark in people who are leading change initiatives, perhaps for the first time.
You can either download the pdf version or view the single page web version.
Download pdf file (1.1 mb)
Web version (no download)